Monday, May 28, 2007

Lemony Grilled Veggie and Mozzarella Salad



The warmer days always have me craving a little sunshine on my plate. My favorites are Greek salads with some cucumber, tomato, feta and olives, insalata caprese, is of course another favorite and when I want something a little more substantial I'll choose between a couscous or bulgur salad, or my new favorite; my lemony grilled veggie and mozzarella salad. I'm slowly getting addicted to this decadent lunch so I thought I'd share it with you.

Simply boil a sweet potato cut in three or four slices for about five minutes. You don't want them too soft of course, so keep on eye on them. Drain and set aside to cool a bit. Meanwhile cut half an aubergine in thin slices and do the same with a large tomato making sure to keep the slices a bit on the thicker side. Heat up your grill and start by grilling the cooled sweet potato, then the aubergine and last the tomato as these only need about a minute a side. Transfer the veggies to a plate, add a few slices of mozzarella and dress the salad. The dressing I use is not really a dressing but rather a touch of cracked mixed peppercorns, a tbsp of high quality olive oil, a little lemon juice and a sprinkling of oregano. Really, this salad is so good! The flavors just work together beautifully and it is rather filling! I wouldn't n call this salad "light" (I don't do "light" anyway), but it is rather healthy with the beta caroteen in the sweet potatoes and the vitamin C and lycopeen in the tomatoes. The first time I made this salad I used sweet potatoes, aubergines, tomatoes and mozzarella, but in this picture I was out of aubergines so I just used a larger sweet potato and two tomatoes instead of one.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds right up my alley, Paola. Do you mean an outdoor grill? I don't have one of course _ not in a Manhattan apartment _ but I could make something like this with my cast iron grill pan.

Paola Westbeek said...

Hi Karen,

I also used a cast iron grill pan. I had the salad again for lunch yesterday, this time again with aubergine and it was SO good! I think it's also the perfect salad to use a good olive oil because you really get a chance to taste it.

paola